Badge of Honor

As an Army wife I am very proud of the work my husband does - I support his job despite our disagreements on the legality of western involvement in the middle east. Naturally I have a bias opinion but I believe his work is vital to saving lives of civilians in conflict areas and our own deployed troops. As a searcher he is trained as an integral part of the British armies Counter-IED Task Force. In this modern warfare it is a risky job, we have lost friends and neighbours and many more have been badly wounded - their lives changed forever. Unfortunately unlike EOD specialists and ATO searchers they do not get any extra danger money or recognition for the high risk work they do, but today we had a step in the right direction.

Carver Barracks hosted a parade to award searchers with their own badge, the symbol of the "all seeing eye" aflame will be awarded today with pride. News reports can be found at British forces news and Cambridge news. Despite being 5 days overdue with our first child I attended the parade with satisfaction (and smugness) that our guys are getting at least a little of what they deserve. The new patches are just in-time for the new issue uniforms too! It was really nice to have a parade to celebrate, so often they are memorials or remembrance parades which are understandably rather sombre affairs.

Whilst over 100 of our friends and neighbours are currently on tour, at home participating in the parade were 250 of our own Searchers who either have recently been or are preparing to deploy. We also had some visitors from 61regiment: Private Alex Stringer (who stepped on an IED and lost 3 limbs earlier this year) attended the service to receive his badge. Stringer is part of a documentary "The Bomb Squad" which happens to coincide with our parade about the IED task force in Afghanistan. It is on BBC1 tonight at 10.35pm and is well worth a watch to learn more about EOD and the work our searchers do.

DH receives his badge

Fuel for the fire

Yesterday we saw extremist Muslims break the 2 minute silence in Central London, with banners holding "British Soldiers Burn In Hell" and the burning of a large symbolic poppy. I'm not trying to stir things but despite this distasteful event it IS a free country and British forces fight to protect that freedom. The spiteful protest got them the publicity they obviously wanted, with news papers and TV stations reporting on it. There were status updates popping up all over facebook stating:

"Today saw Muslims break the 2 minute silence in Central London, with banners holding "British Soldiers Burn In Hell" & the burning of a poppy... If you don't like us English people paying respect for our brave fighters, then you know where the airport is. Disgusting, disrespectful b******s! Copy and paste this if you're British and... proud. R.I.P our brave fighters!"

These type of hard-liners are just like the IRA years ago, they can only achieve their aim by people giving them the publicity they crave. The majority of Muslims in this country are dragged down by the minority of others, like these extremists, which is a shame. I'm sure most indigenous Muslims will be mortified by the actions of a few so lets not tar everyone with the same brush or we risk the same thing happening back. And by that I mean being classed as extreme intolerant right wingers.

Remembrance day is a time of reflection and reverence, if a few who disprove choose to use venom and aggression, dont encourage it. As many of us pay our respects keep in mind the many who are fallen, injured and still serving this country in our armed forces today. Its not about war but sacrifice. Think about the peace they work so hard to protect.

SSAFA

SSAFA Forces Help are immediately available to support you and your family, whether you are serving at home, overseas or in an operational environment. They provide several services including but not are not limited to; Health care abroad, confidential support line, holidays for special needs children and their siblings as well as financial support and advice. They are a relatively small charity that do a lot of important work!

There is an army of SSAFA volunteers who offer practical help when you need a helping hand. They provide essential support when partners are away or when times get tough. I am one of those volunteers and can help with hands on stuff, ie look after the children or take them out while the service user gets some rest/catches up with chores/has some me time etc and can take dogs out for a walk, mow the lawn for you and help out at home if your partner is away.

Lots of people will feel vulnerable by asking for help, that they can't cope but serving with the forces is not a normal lifestyle, single parenting etc with out the support family and friends that regular families have around is never easy which is why ssafa is there to help you out : )